Midnight Morals: Rise the Clown (P4 MCTF) (Patreon)

Hey folks.

Still rolling along. Adjusting to new work! Trying to finish up all the last few stories people asked for. Nothing else to report. Enjoy story!

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See through the illusion that defines reality as you know it, and reach out to the truth of a vast, unknowable cosmos beyond your comprehension. Burn the dread that binds you to what you believe. Wake up, get up, and get out of the shackles of normality. Those are your only options, once you find yourself free…

… Free, inside the Midnight Channel.

“Welcome back once more, my dearly beloved followers.” The woman in blue once again greets you from behind her desk, leaning on her elbows and smiling at you from beneath her blue brimmed hat. “I hope you’ve had a pleasant trip – I know it can be a rough journey, navigating the collective consciousness. Especially after that nonsense in Tokyo… But I digress. Are you ready for tonight’s tale?”

She draws out a manuscript and skims through it, chuckling as she reads. “We have a bit of a comedy to enjoy today, I see. Ah, the perils of the life of an entertainer – you find yourself shaped more by what others want than who you wish to be. I believe our main character has tried to fight against that little trap in the past, but it can be so hard to stand against the flow forever…”

The file snaps shut, and she grins. “Now, I know what you may be thinking. Am I to blame for our lovely heroines and their misadventures? Their unfortunate fates? Ah, would that I were. That would be a delightful turn up for the books.”

Pouting, she lounges in her chair, leaning on the desk. “But alas. As I am now, I’m afraid I serve as little more than a chronicler. A scribe to record the events of what was once my domain – and a voice to give words to the tales, should there be those receptive to hearing them. These poor unfortunates got themselves into their own trouble – and what force lays behind it? We may never know. Such a shame to leave questions hovering unanswered in any tale, but…”

Her eyes flash red, and her lips quirk into a smile. “… That means there’s always the potential for more sequels, don’t you think?”

“Something to dwell on, perhaps, as we delve. Now, do take a seat, and make sure you’ve no need to look away.” She opens the manuscript once more. “I’d hate for you to miss any details. They can be so vital, here in the Midnight Channel…”

-

Rise Kujikawa was not a happy woman. This was, perhaps, unsurprising. She had, after all, been separated from her friends and stranded inside a pretty hostile environment. Her persona had developed a few fighting skills over the years – she was no longer quite as helpless as she had been as the Investigation Team’s navigator – but even so, she was no front liner. This was a pretty bad situation!

It had started so simply, too. She’d been meeting with her girlfriends back in Inaba when she sensed something strange from the TV world. And it had to have been a strong signal for her to detect it even in the real world like that. Not the kind of thing you wanted to leave unattended, you know?

So the four of them had headed in. They were experienced god slayers at this point after all – surely they could handle anything. Yeah, you know, in retrospect, the hubris was kind of embarrassing.

Worse, though, was that the separation had been her fault – or that’s how it felt to her. She was the sensor in the group after all. She was the one who was supposed to be able to detect threats and keep an eye on everyone’s status. But when the thick fog had rolled in, it had been too much, even for her. It had blinded her enhanced senses, and nothing she’d tried to break through had worked. Eventually the strain of even trying had been too taxing, and she’d passed out.

And now she woke up in complete darkness. It was pitch black, wherever she was – dark enough that she had to feel her face to make sure she’d actually opened her eyes. And once again, her sensor abilities weren’t revealing anything – all she could tell was that she was in a wide open space. Wonderful.

There was really only one thing to do. Start walking, and hope that she found the others quickly, before something found her…

But she hadn’t even made it a step when the voices started.

“Bubbles was having a bad day. She just couldn’t think of anything she was good at!”

“What the hell?!?”

One might have thought that she was reacting to the mysterious voice speaking from the sky, but no. No, actually, the cause of her outburst was the spotlight that had just snapped on, centred on her. And in doing so, it had revealed that something had changed while she was unconscious. Something she hadn’t noticed in the dark.

Specifically, her outfit.

Gone were her casual, fashionable threads. Gone were her cute hair ties and surprisingly sensible shoes. Gone was even her jewellery, her necklaces and bangles! Everything she’d been wearing when she entered the fog was gone without a trace! And replacing it all…

Long floppy shoes…

Bright green booty shorts…

A neon orange halter top…

A layer of white makeup slathered over her face, with a wide red smile drawn around her mouth…

Green, red, and yellow dye streaks through her hair…

… And to top it all off, there, in the middle of her face, bobbling right before her eyes: A round red nose.

She was dressed like a clown. Like a slutty clown.

“… Someone…” The idol muttered, in a voice so cold that it would have frightened even a bufu specialist like Chie. “… Someone is going to pay for this.”

“She only had one talent – telling jokes!”

“You think this is funny?!?” She roared, turning to try to glare at the invisible speaker. “Get down here and I’ll show you funny!”

No one appeared. But, to her to her increasing infuriation, music did begin to play. Music that she distantly knew by the name ‘Entrance of the Gladiators’, but which she, and indeed most other people, knew mainly as ‘That circus music tune’. The idol’s eye twitched.

Then, just before she could try to storm out in her floppy shoes, she spotted something. A white gloved hand descended from on high, floating in the air with no arm to support it. Her brow furrowed as it drew closer, her eyes practically crossing as it hovered in front of her face.

“What-?” She opened her mouth to question it, but the moment she did, it shot forward and…

Honk!

Squeezed her red nose.

That should have annoyed her. Rise was already having a horrendous day, and this really should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. But instead, a happy, giddy feeling bubbled up inside her, and she found her lips moving without any instruction from her brain.

“Y’know they said I was a natural in clown college,” she said, speaking loudly and putting one hand on her hip as if she was performing for an audience. “Aced all my classes! The first time they wanted me to make a balloon animal, I showed ‘em my balloons,” she smacked her chest proudly, “and made ‘em a bunch’a animals right then and there~!”

Laughter roared through the sir, hoots and hollers echoing in the darkness. The idol blinked as she regained control of herself, looking around. Were there people watching out there? Wait, this space… was she in the middle of a circus tent?

More important, though – what the hell was that?! The instant her nose had been squeezed, she’d felt that joke welling up inside of her. And it had felt so good to say it – even better when she’d heard people laughing at it! Even… Even though, quite honestly, she didn’t think it was that funny. Crude humour like that wasn’t her style anyway, but what, the joke was that she had tits? C’mon.

“But the only jokes she knew were so crude. Was that really okay?”

She trembled in place for a moment, uncertain. It had felt good… really, really good… But it definitely hadn’t been her. She absolutely couldn’t let it happen again.

Which was why, when she saw the phantom hand zipping towards her face, she squealed, slapped her hands over her nose to protect it, and started running in the other direction as fast as she could. No no no, not happening, she wasn’t gunna- Eep!

Alas, as it turned out, running in shoes about three times the size of your feet was a rather difficult proposition, even when you were ready for them. Rise had not been ready for them. Thus, she’d barely taken a step before she found herself tumbling head over heels, practically doing a somersault before landing on her ass. You could even see birds circling her head for a moment as she wobbled in a daze.

At least the audience laughed again, generating another swell of joy in the idol’s heart. Between that and her tumble, she really had no defence left as the hand swept in again.

Honk!

“Yeah, clown college was great!” The words marched out of Rise’s mouth proudly as she casually flipped to her feet. “Almost flunked my final exam, though. Completely misunderstood the examiner when he told me to show off a creampie. Oopsie!”

She winked to the audience and gave a lascivious lick of her lips, paired with a suggestive wiggle of her hips. The surge of laughter that followed, filled with whistles, hoots and hollers, felt better than anything she’d ever experienced before! Even standing on stage performing to millions of adoring fans was nothing compared to this!

The idol was gasping for breath as she came back to herself this time, hot and hungry for more. That feeling, it was so intoxicating. Enticing. She knew what a heady rush it could be to be up in the limelight, but even she wasn’t prepared for this rush. As much as she knew she shouldn’t, that she had to get away from this place, she couldn’t deny that part of her wanted more…

“Everyone seemed to enjoy her performance, so why not give them a little extra?”

E-extra…? Rise swallowed. She wanted to pretend that she had no idea what ‘extra’ might mean, but this hungry heat in her chest definitely knew exactly what. Anything to please her audience.

Ooooh… Oh no, she couldn’t give in to that. She… she shouldn’t…

But her hesitation was her downfall. Her breath hitched as she saw the white gloved fingers wrap around her nose before she could make up her mind.

“W-wait…!”

Honk! Honk! Honk!

The change in attitude and body language was immediate. The uncertain star shifted into the butt of the joke, twirling in front of her audience.

“I won ‘em back though,” she announced in sing song. “They wanted to see my honker routine!” She honked her nose with a suggestive wink. “And I didn’t let ‘em down! Here, lemme show you too!”

Giggling, the clownified girl reached up to the collar of her orange top, and yanked it down, bouncing her breasts out to the world for everyone in the audience to see. “Honk honk! You like ‘em?”

The roar of laughter was thunderous, enough to shake the walls of the circus tent they were in – and this time Rise was laughing along with them, hyuking it up with aplomb. It was too much, it was just too much! She felt great! She never wanted to stop! So what if she was a laughing stock? So what if she was showing off her bare body like a stripper? Fuck it, if they liked that, they could see her cooch, too! Shimmy these shorts off right on the floor! She’d show it all and more! Anything for a laugh~

The spotlight slowly shrank inwards on her, giving her a few more moments to pose, shaking her hips and jiggling her chest, before it shut off once more. The stage was left in complete darkness. But even so, it would be a long while before the laughter stopped – Rise’s giggles last of all.

“Bubbles learned her lesson: Everybody loves crude sex humour!”

-

When the light returned, she was somewhere else, and still struggling to stifle her giggle fit. Hoo, who was she trying to be right now, Yukiko? Ha, no way, Yukiko only wished she had titties like these~

Still smiling, she shook her head and looked around. Where was she now, anyway?

What she saw was herself. Dozens of her! Or, really, of her reflection. Mirrors surrounded her, lining the walls on either side and stretching off in both directions. That dizzy feeling of seeing yourself stretch off into eternity hit almost immediately.

“Oh. A hall of mirrors. Well, that beats the infinite dark void…”

“Bubbles was still unsure about her path in life. Could it really be that easy to make people laugh?”

“Ngh… Stop calling me that…” Rise shook her head and glared upwards at the cheap wooden ceiling. Still no one there, of course, but the point had to be made. Then she returned her attention to the mirror in front of her. Was it just her, or was there something… off, about her reflection?

She leaned closer, squinting to take in all the details. Apparently her clothing had been repaired and returned to her while everything was dark, so now she could get a good look at herself. Same big floppy shoes. Same tight green booty shorts. Same orange halter top. Same whiteface and smile. Same multicoloured hair. And even the same happy red nose in the middle of it all.

Yep, that was all normal! No clown wanted to be seen without their face after all. She giggled and gave herself a quick honk! of relief that nothing too weird had happened this time. But… No, that feeling of strangeness was still there. Something was wrong with her reflection, something obvious, something right in front of her… Aha!

The clown idol grinned and pointed directly at her reflection’s chest. “Nice try, mirror me, but I know my bra is size C, not D. I would look hot like that though~”

Yeah, now that she’d noticed it, she could see the way the glass warped her image around her chest. Heehee, well, she couldn’t lie, it was funny. And she’d probably be able to entertain even more people with bigger tits. Something to think about!

But for now, she couldn’t really check herself over in a trick mirror like this, could she?

“She didn’t think there was anything all that special about her appearance…”

Rise rolled her eyes as the mysterious voice kept talking. Yeah, maybe there was nothing special about her looks – she was just an ordinary clown, after all, even if she thought she was pretty cute. But so what? Did they have something to say about it or something? Hmph!

Feeling a little irritated already, she glanced at the next mirror, pausing as she once again noticed something was wrong. It didn’t take her as long to spot this time, since she knew what to look for. Ha, they hadn’t just tried to make her boobs look bigger – they’d made her look shorter, too!

“Wrong again, mirror me! I’m still just a D cup over here – though I still wouldn’t mind being an E cup like you. But seriously, did you think I wouldn’t notice you shrinking? I’m 5’1, not 4’11! A clown idol has to keep track of these things~”

“After all, she was just a shortarse with big boobs. What was funny about that?”

At this point she was just ignoring the voice, continuing on her quest to find a non-joke mirror. Obviously, normally she was all about jokes, but she couldn’t look her best if she didn’t know what she actually looked like, right?

Which was difficult, because all the mirrors in this hall were weird joke mirrors! Well, maybe that was to be expected at a circus, but it was still a bit much, in her opinion. There, that one made her look like barely four feet tall, that one made it look like her ass was bigger than her head, and that one made it look like her boobs were about to bounce right out of her top! How was she supposed to fix her face with these kinds of reflections.

Rolling her eyes, Rise continued walking down the mirrored hall, reaching up to adjust her top after her F-cup knockers nearly slipped right out of it. They just didn’t make proper clothes for a shrimp with her curves anymore! But that was fine – she was happy to give anyone watching a show~

By the time she got to the end of the hall she was really starting to get frustrated though. How was she supposed to get anything done around here if she couldn’t- wait.

Aha! There! Just by the exit, one last mirror… And there was nothing wrong with this one! No distortions, no tricks – just 100% Rise. Perfect.

Giggling, she put her hands on her hips took in her full reflection. Yep, there was no mistaking it. There was everyone’s favourite 3’5, butt-so-fat-she-had-to-squeeze-through-every-door entertainer, with G cup watermelons that would have been excessive on a woman twice her size! But on her, they were the exact right size, just like the rest of her~

Right. She skipped over to the exit and pushed the door open. Now she could finally get out of here and find- Splat!

“But then she was struck by inspiration!”

Rise tumbled end over end backwards, landing once again on her now very padded rear, little birdies circling around her head tweeting a familiar circus theme. Slowly, a pie tin resting over her face slid down, revealing a mountain of cream.

“It wasn’t about having a silly body – it was about what you did with it!”

She groaned as she got back up to her feet, wiping the whipped cream out of her eyes. “Okay then. Whoever’s behind this, I hope you know – this. Means. WAR!”

Hopping up to her feet, her fists shaking at her sides, she stormed out of the door, her curves bouncing and wiggling all the way. The shortstack was a woman on a mission.

“Bubbles learned her next lesson: Big fun can be found in small packages!”

-

“Finally, it was the night of Bubbles’ big show!”

Bubbles blinked and looked around. Where was she? Things had gone dark again after she’d left the hall of mirrors. Now she was standing – oh back in the big ring! Her eyes had adjusted better to the darkness now, and even thought the spotlight was shining on her diminutive, curvy form, she could see the audience watching her with rapt anticipation. She wouldn’t let them down!

But then she saw what else lurked in the darkness. A white gloved floating hand – holding in its palm the most incriminating piece of evidence she’d ever laid eyes on. A cream pie!

“You!” She jumped to her feet, shaking her fist in the air, her every motion exaggerated and jiggly. “You were the one who threw that pie in my face! What do you have to say for yourself, Mr?!”

There was really only one answer she should have expected.

Splat!

“At first she was nervous…”

The audience was once again roaring with laughter, practically reduced to tears instantly as the clown’s face was filled with pie. But Bubbles didn’t really hear it. There was too much cream in her ears, leaking through into her head. It felt like it was clogging up her thoughts, softening up her brain…

It took her a moment to shake off the daze, but when she did, she went right back to the chase. “Hey, like, no fair!” She groused, pouting. Her change to simpler, easier diction went unnoticed. “I wasn’t ready. That was totally cheating! Try it again and I’ll-!”

Splat!

Honestly, she really should have seen that one coming.

“But soon enough, everyone was rolling in their seats at her silliness!”

More cream. By now, bubble’s eyes were practically swirling, the space behind them growing thick and creamy. There was no room for complicated thoughts or memories. Nothing like that could hope to penetrate her head’s new milky rich filling. Her mind was simple, direct, and focused on one single goal: Making as much of a fool of herself as possible!

“Oooohhhh yoooouu!” She managed to growl between infectious giggles as she cleaned the pie out of her eyes. “When I get my hands on you, I’m gunna… Gunna… Uh…”

She trailed off nervously. And the reason why was quite obvious to anyone looking, like, say, those in the audience. Because hovering around her, now in their dozens, were floating, white gloved hands. And each one was carrying a fresh cream pie of its own.

“Uh, y’know…” She raised a single, uncertain finger. “On second thought we can totally, like, talk this out…”

Unsurprisingly, they didn’t go for it.

Splat! Splat! Splat splatsplatsplatsplat-!

“In the end, she decided it didn’t matter – as long as she was making her audience happy!”

Her head was getting, like, suuuper thick now. Heehee, should could barely hear herself think! But that was okay – she totally didn’t need to think! She was just a sexy lil’ shortstack clown after all – the dumber she was, the better!

In fact, that gave her, like, the totally best idea she’d ever had!

A wide, silly smile spread over her face as she licked the cream from her cheeks and hopped back up to her feet. The audience clapped and cheered as she waved out at them – possibly because they liked her, or possibly because her top had fallen down again, who was to say? Both were good answers!

To her delight, there was another glove floating in front of her, once more with a cream pie in hand. But this one didn’t throw it in her face. No, instead, it just floated forwards, offering the dish to her, without any tricks or traps. She took it with a grin.

Then, as she stood there, studying her new weapon, an old voice welled up from deep within. A small, pleading voice, the voice of Rise Kujikawa begging her new self not to do this. That this was the point of no return. That if she did this, her new stupid, exhibitionist, jiggly boobed, bouncy butted, jokster self was here to stay. She’d forever be a bouncy bimbo clown. That there would be no going back!

Bubbles took all of that in, and smiled even wider. That sounded great to her! She didn’t care about any of that crap - the only thing she cared about was getting a good laugh! So with a great guffaw, she stretched out her arm, and then nailed herself in the face with her final cream pie!

Her eyes rolled up in her head as the cream seeped deeper into her mind, right to her core. There, it smothered the last remnants of her old self, silencing that whining little voice forever. It was done – she was Bubbles the bimbo clown now, and that would never change!

The audience certainly seemed to appreciate her decision, laughing, clapping, cheering, and always demanding more! Something she was all too happy to provide!

Bubbles laughed, she danced, she rolled and she juggled – each pin hitting her on the head on its way down (making a hilarious hollow sound). She was every bit the entertainer, willing to do anything for a laugh. She never stopped, even as the lights once more began to grow dim…

There was only one thing she had to say.

“Thank you folks! I’ll be here all week!”

And she would~

“Bubbles learned her final lesson: Don’t worry and have fun!”

-

“Dear oh dear, Rise. Don’t you look the fool? Well, at least you’re still entertaining people. Certainly not the fate you would have chosen for yourself, but it could always be worse. And really, just what you deserve for insisting on sticking your nose wherever it doesn’t belong~”

The woman in blue sets her manuscript down, smiling over the desk once more. “But, I’m afraid that the time has come to end our little story time once more. Alas, I wouldn’t advise dwelling in the Midnight Channel for too long – not unless you want to run away with the circus too.”

“But I do hope you return for the next showing. I know there’s at least one more story I’d love to share. For now, though… Rest well, my beloved readers. And I’ll see you the next time you dare to tune in to the Midnight Channel~”

A modest woman now sheds her dignity, her restraint, and her self-respect in the name of entertainment. A sensitive empath now ply’s her craft to sate her viewers lusts in every way they demand. A talented performer discards her brains to play the fool she was always destined to be. As they say, fame waits for no woman, not the least…

… In the Midnight Channel.